Conversation in the snow
by Blue Jeans
Summary: Mamoru discusses destiny and freedom with someone who has a completely different point of view.  Unluckily for him, his drunken ramblings did little to help her steadily declining opinions about him.


**Title:** Conversation in the snow  
**Theme:** _sm-monthly LJ community:_ **February (Usagi and Mamoru****) 20th** - _Image_  
**Genre:** General/Drama  
**Version:** Anime  
**Rating:** PG

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She slid one gleaming finger, wet from melted snow, against the statue next to the bench. Shuddering a little, she quickly stuffed her numb finger into the worn, brown mittens again, noting that the world seemed a little dull in the morning. It was hard to imagine that the night before, under the dark shadows of the trees and the warm, golden glow of street lamps, Chiba Mamoru had held her in his arms with a shuddering breath against her hair. "Are you afraid of the future?" he asked. 

It was, in the end, a stupid question, at least she thought so. "Isn't _your_ future set, Chiba-san?" she asked as she had looked up at him with a little quirk of her eye brow, before she shoved him off of her and onto the bench a little roughly, in case he got any ideas. Granted, he was a little drunk from the celebration of the med-students. He had seemed a bit down lately, but that really wasn't her concern. She really hated when people were so familiar with her, especially when they didn't know her and she didn't care to get to know them.

Around them the snow fell and she considered that, at the time, it must have been a rather romantic and intimate scene to an outsider. To her, though, at the time she only noted that her colleague was not acting like himself which was more an annoyance since her fellow colleagues had shoved him to her. They were more his friends than hers and when he declared he needed to go home she was the only available (female) person who wouldn't take advantage of his current... state and who was also leaving the party. She also noted that it was freezing (the type of weather she despised) and she only had him to blame for taking so damn long to stumble to where they were now, not too far from her car but far enough for her to want to grit her teeth that she was obligated, for now, to make sure he didn't fall asleep on the bench and die (which was an option she considered several times along the way).

He puffed his red cheeks a little, a boyish looking gesture and she thought that if she didn't have a _block-of-ice_ for a heart, she might have found him attractive like every other woman in her class. But then again, they wouldn't be here, in the freezing cold and walking back to the parking lot together with him so trustingly drunk if she _had_ been anyone else. "Yeah," he hiccupped a little, "Future. Set in stone!" But he didn't really sound as enthusiastic as he should be. He got an internship with the largest hospital in Tokyo and now that they were going to be colleagues for a little longer, she thought he should at least be grateful for making it.

"You're a bit ungrateful, aren't you?" She observed him bluntly, unsympathetically.

Chiba Mamoru blinked at her blurrily. "Wha?" he slurred a little, struggling towards sobriety (and failing).

"Most people would want that type of security," she said softly. Her eyes were a bit distant. "Life is not always so easy."

Her dark-haired companion finally seemed to sober a bit at those words and stopped teetering, even though he was sitting down. "Yes," his voice was suddenly solid again. She almost sighed in relief at this. There was a time when she would have considered him companionable, but for now, he just slouched, in rather ungentlemanly posture, on the bench and sighed as if the fate of the world rested on his shoulders. "But there is no freedom in that security," he finally said and looked with his squinting, blurry eyes at the sky.

"You're a bit delusional," she answered, not moved by his melancholy or the thoughtful look on his face that must have sent many frivolous hearts a flutter. He quirked a brow at her, his cheeks still a bit red but he seemed more tired now and more like the calculating and irritatingly intelligent man she knew him as. He was smirking, as if he doubted she knew what she was talking about too, and she considered smacking his arrogant features with her purse but decided her purse didn't deserve the abuse. "People never have freedom. They have the illusion of freedom. It's better if you just faced the facts and accept your lot in life."

"Destiny?" he chuckled a bit bitterly at this, as he was an intimate confidant of such an ephemeral thing.

"No," she answered, looking away as he looked up at her sharply. The motion caused him to groan a little as the blood sloshed about in his head unhappily at the movement. This made her slightly satisfied that he was suffering as she was, though in a different way and for different reasons. "There's always something trapping us, here on Earth." She gritted her teeth together a little, hating philosophical topics that she doubted he'll remember all that clearly in the morning. To her, the words always sounded clichéd and corny when they come out. Life wasn't a book, if people talked the way they talked in books, no one will buy a word they said. "Tragedies, sadness, poverty, wealth," she paused at this thoughtfully, "we are never free." She concluded, bored with listing things that didn't matter to her anyway. She didn't want to be eloquent. She wanted him to sober up to walk himself home, but she was the designated driver this time. At least, she only had to deal with one stupid drunk this evening.

"I suppose," he said thoughtfully. "Thanks, Yuuko-san."

She frowned. "Adachi," she corrected him.

"Eh?" He blinked at her.

"Adachi-san," she supplied again, a bit impatiently. "Don't presume to be so informal with me because I corrected your misconceptions." She sniffed a little haughtily at this and turned to go. "If you want to sit in the cold, be my guest, _Ouji-sama_." She mocked, using the nickname that the other women called him privately behind his back, though she found it to be a rather stupid nickname with only childish sentimentalisms and ideals that the reality was never able to fulfill.

"Are you still sore about that internship, Adachi-san," he asked after he caught up with her, his steps steadier but she knew he was still mildly buzzed.

She only looked at him with an unconcealed look of dislike. "Fool," she muttered and then instructed him to get his butt into her car because she wanted to be home before one in the morning (she needed brain sleep so she could do all that she needed to do the next day).

---

"Ouji-sama... hmm?" Adachi Yuuko pondered to herself in the dull light of the day and her lips thinned in distaste at the memory. "What a stupid nickname." She muttered as she rose and left the scene of the discussion the night before. To her, it was just another night with a drunk idiot - even if he happened to be mildly intelligent and knowledgeable when sober. She took a few steps and looked up to see the face of Chiba Mamoru before her, looking a bit sheepish. She hid her start and only looked at him expectantly. He seemed to be working his courage to say something, but Yuuko had places to be and things to read so once she got a hold of her bearings she began to stroll passed him.

"Yuu--" he saw the look on her face before he could finish saying her name "--Adachi-san," he corrected himself quickly. "I- Thanks, for driving me back last night. My fiancée was really grateful."

Yuuko remembered the little blonde girl that shoot her looks of curiosity with a slight hint of hard to conceal jealousy. "Ah, yes, the jealous little Hime, right?" Yuuko mocked with a roll of her eyes. "If you want to thank me, don't bother. It won't happen again." Yuuko meant it, she'd rather see people drive off cliffs than help another drunk person that wasn't on a hospital table, again. It meant people like her had more business, anyway, that and she wouldn't have to deal with the idiocy in person (_without_ pay).

"About... the future..."

Yuuko looked at him. "If you expect more insight, go consult an eight ball or something." She looked away. Did he want her to share her life story now? Prove what she said to him was true? The little respect she had for Chiba Mamoru dropped a few degrees. He was lucky, most people were in the negatives but he was nearing zero now.

"I think you were right," he said. She snorted, surprised again by his humble admission this time. "If I acted too forward last night... in any way..." he trailed off because Yuuko was already walking away again. "Adachi-san?" he inquired to her retreating back.

She paused and without looking back, she said, "The past is the past, Chiba-san. Words cannot rectify what happens there so don't bother." Yuuko left, her callous ways and candid truth leaving more mystery in her wake. Years later, King Endymion, when telling his daughter about the meaning of destiny, would pause to think back on that day and the look of that strange woman's back walking away from him, her footprints the only thing that trailed after her in the snow.

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**End.**

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_**Adachi Yuuko** is my original character. I created her. Her last name is based on my favorite mangaka of all time. If you want to use her, please ask for permission first._

_Ouji-sama -_ Prince (The _sama_ at the end is meant to be extremely formal/respectful, but Yuuko is using it in a mocking manner because she obviously does _not_ respect Mamoru very much. A small Japanese nuance.)


End file.
